


Pain is My Power

by Crowsims



Series: A Crow Flies in Sunnydale [10]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), The Crow - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 09:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17847176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowsims/pseuds/Crowsims
Summary: Things get tense after Glory brain drains Tara. Carmen once again goes above and beyond for her girl and family.





	Pain is My Power

**Author's Note:**

> Next in the series. Tip of the hat and two thumbs up to anyone who gets the connection between the title and the Crow universe.

It has been a long two days.

 

Remember Glory, the demon that’s been hunting for Dawn. Well it turns out she’s actually a hell Goddess. She thought Tara was her precious Key that we still don’t know what it…she does. Tara and Willow got in to a fight about something and Tara ran off. That’s where Glory confronted her. She got really angry when she found out Tara wasn’t the Key and sucked her brain dry, turning Tara in to a babbling, childlike shell of her former self.

 

It took a lot of convincing and determination on all our parts to keep our seriously pissed off witchy Willow from going after Glory. Instead we made her focus on Tara, but that’s starting to loose its power and once again Willow is looking for blood.

 

Like I said, it’s been a long two days.

 

***

 

I was strumming out a soft melody on my guitar, humming along with the tune as I sat in a chair beside the bed while Dawn fed Tara the last of some soup. Tara looked over at me and smiled as she started humming along after finishing the soup. Dawn lowered her head and put the empty container on the nightstand.

 

This whole thing has been hardest on the littlest Summers.

 

She’s the Key, a mystical construct pushed in to our memories. She’s not real, but none of us think that. She’s Buffy’s little sister and we all love her and want to protect her from the all powerful Glory.

 

Especially Faith.

 

Those two have been hanging out a lot more these days while Buffy’s been visiting me. She moved back home, saying she needed to in order to take care of Dawn, but told me that I could keep my loft since it was mine and Erica’s home. I could tell she was only saying that to make me comfortable but I didn’t call her on it just yet.

 

“Stop it right now, Dawnie,” I told her as I continued playing.

 

“Stop what?” Dawn asked angrily.

 

“This is not your fault honey. Willow doesn’t blame you or hate you for what happened. Neither do any of us. This is all on Glory.”

 

“And she’s here because of me,” Dawn stated loudly shooting up from the bed, frightening Tara, “She’s hurting my family because of me and nothing seems to stop or even hurt her. Not even you.”

 

My hand slowed over the strings before I set it down and continued humming as I came over and ran a hand through Tara’s hair, calming her down as I took her wrist cast in my hand. I checked it over then set it down as I laid her down on the bed.

 

I jumped in to help Buffy during a confrontation with Glory and like me she just shook off every blow I gave her. Hers were a lot stronger and knocked me around harder, but I still got up and kept coming at her.

 

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop” I stated walking around and standing in front of Dawn, “Buffy and Faith will heal and while Glory does pack a punch, I can take it and will continue taking it as long as it means you stay safe.”

 

“Carmen.” Dawn began in a teary tone as she wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her face in my chest. I held her close as I heard shouting coming from the living room, holding her tighter so she would not hear what was going on. The door slowly opened up and Faith slipped in, closing the door behind her quickly.

 

“You okay Dawnie?” Faith asked in a concerned tone. Dawn pulled away from me and ran to Faith. Faith quickly wrapped her up in a warm protective embrace, resting her chin on top of Dawn’s head. I cocked my head to the side and raised an eyebrow as I looked on at the two, beginning to speculate on the growing relationship between them.

 

The shouting got more intense and I could hear Tara mumbling. “Stay with her and keep her calm,” I ordered stepping around the two, “I’ll go deal with the loudmouths.”

 

Dawn nodded as she went over to the bed and started running a hand through Tara’s hair, humming soothingly. I smirked at Faith, causing her to blush slightly then walked over quickly to join Dawn. I laughed softly and shook my head before slipping out to join the shouting match.

 

***

 

“You aren’t going after her,” Buffy declared strongly as she stood in front of Willow, her arms crossed under her chest and a stern scowl on her face.

 

“Yes I am,” Willow countered, her resolve face staring back at Buffy, “Now get out of my way Slayer before I make you.”

 

“Willow,” Xander stepped in, only to be knocked away when she turned her resolve face on him.

 

Giles stood in the kitchen sipping on his tea as he watched the exchange, clearly hoping the two best friends would work this out themselves without him having to step in. Yeah right.

 

“I don’t mean to interrupt but you two are scaring the locals.”

 

Buffy looked to me and smiled softly as Willow turned and looked worriedly at the door to my bedroom, the idea of scaring Tara in her current state acting like a splash of cold water to her face.

 

“She’s okay, Dawn and Faith are looking after her while I resolve this little issue,” I assured her as I moved to stand in front of her.

 

“I want Glory to pay,” Willow said through clenched teeth, recovering quicker then I thought she would.

 

“Revenge is a very powerful force. Nobody knows that better then me. It can turn the nicest people in the world in to cold hearted killers. Willow, if you go after Glory with magic, you might hurt her, but she’ll just keep coming and ware you down till you’re out of juice. She won’t kill you right away of course. She’ll torture you first because she believes the Key is someone in our group.”

 

“I would die before I tell her anything,” Willow stated strongly.

 

“Then you’ll die.”

 

“Carmen,” Xander shouted angrily.

 

“You’ll die and you won’t come back,” I continued staring in to her eyes as her resolve face began to fade, “Tara will still be the way she is and she won’t have you to take of her. She’ll be alone and scared and crying out for you, but you’ll be dead and unable to comfort her.”

 

“Stop…please,” Willow cried as she lowered her head. I wrapped my arms around her and let her cry on my shoulder.

 

This hell bitch is tearing my family apart, threatening them and hurting my girl and there’s nothing I could do to stop her…until now.

 

“Giles, you’re English not French,” I joked turning to look at him with a grin, “Enough sitting on the sidelines.”

 

“True, though I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” Giles replied sadly, “You do know the risk you’re taking?”

 

“I can handle it,” I answered as I let Willow go once she stopped crying and let Xander take over hugging duty.

 

Everyone looked between Giles and me like we were crazy as I went to the closet and pulled out an old book and my long leather coat. Buffy blocked my path to Giles with an angry determined look on her face.

 

“You tell me what’s going on right now or I swear…” Buffy growled menacingly.

 

“I’m putting an end to this babe and hopefully helping Tara at the same time,” I stopped her, cupping her cheek as I tossed the book on to the island counter, “I’ve been debating this plan about Glory with Giles for the past few days. Be mad and threaten me later, right now I need you to do exactly what I say without question.”

 

“What exactly are you planning?”

 

“That’s a question,” I retorted with a laugh.

 

Buffy just glared at me with a soft smile as I placed a kiss to her forehead then walked around her to stand at the island in front of Giles. “Will it work?”

 

Giles opened the book to the bookmarked passage and looked over the spell. “The spell, yes. Your idea…I don’t know.”

 

“She is inhabiting a human body, using the energy she takes from peoples brains to keep herself in control and not allow the human side to get to her,” I explained with a painful sigh, “At least that’s what I gleamed from her. I pull this off I can restore the human part.”

 

“At a cost.”

 

“Cost?” Buffy asked.

 

“That’s another question,” I scolded over my shoulder, “One problem at a time. Give me about two hours then bring them to Glory’s place.”

 

“Very well,” Giles agreed as he took the book and went to Willow.

 

I looked up at the skylight and saw Sis being strangely quiet before she flew off. Buffy was right behind me when I turned around, a pleading look to her eyes that nearly broke my heart. She opened her mouth about to ask another question but I quickly silenced her lips with mine, kissing her deeply and stealing the air from her lungs before pulling away.

 

“Listen to Giles. Do what he says and make sure Faith stays here with Dawn. I’ll see you soon.”

 

“Carmen,” Buffy breathed softly.

 

“After this is over we need to talk about me moving in to the house. You, me and Faith living together and selling the loft. Maybe I can rent it out to Tara and Willow,” I continued with a knowing grin, “That is what you want for us right?”

 

“Carmen,” Buffy repeated as a tear fell down her cheek.

 

“Be strong for two hours babe then you can cry on me, beat me up, whatever you want,” I told her warmly, placing a soft kiss to her lips. Buffy nodded then smiled brightly up at me as I walked past her and left the loft.

 

***

 

I arrived at Glory’s mansion and stood outside feeling a bit off. My little detour was leaving me anxious and making it hard to concentrate.

 

 _‘This is a bad idea. A very bad idea,’_ Sis stated as she landed on my shoulder, _‘I mean you’ve done a lot of crazy things for Buffy, but this takes the cake. With what you just did the Crow is too buried to come out and help you.’_

 

“Great,” I breathed, closing my eyes and trying to calm my mind.

 

 _‘Think of Buffy,’_ Sis suggested, _‘That always seems to help you.’_

I pictured Buffy smiling brightly at me back at my loft and sure enough the anxiety and off feeling diminished. That girl definitely has a power over me, but in a good way.

 

“Let’s go,” I said, opening my eyes and heading up to the guarded door.

 

 _‘I’ll take the high road,’_ Sis said as she flew off my shoulder and headed up to the roof.

 

“Chicken,” I called out to her.

 

 _‘Whipped,’_ Sis countered before disappearing over the roof.

 

***

 

I burst through the doors to the massive living room, tossing two of her pug face servants aside as they tried to stop me. Glory was sitting on a nice throne like chair while one of the servants gave her a pedicure, a look of disbelief crossing her face before vanishing behind a smirk.

 

“If you wanted an appointment you should have called ahead,” Glory joked as she waved the servant away.

 

“You hurt a friend of mine. That wasn’t very nice,” I stated as she started walking towards me.

 

“She wouldn’t give me my Key,” Glory replied angrily, “I wanted my Key and she wasn’t it. But she did serve to feed a need.”

 

“Is that what you call draining the minds of countless innocent people?”

 

“I’ll make you a deal bird girl, you tell me who my Key is and give them to me and I’ll go away,” Glory offered as she stopped right in front of me, smiling evilly as she placed her hands on my shoulders, “You and all the pathetic innocent little maggots in this town will never see me again. That way you and the Slayer bitch can live happily ever after. What do you say?”

 

I delivered a quick hard kick to her stomach that bent her over then followed it up with a fast uppercut to her chin, sending her flying up and back. That hurt my fist like hell but it finally did the trick and seemed to hurt her too. Unfortunately that was all I had at the moment and Glory was getting up as she advanced towards me in a rage.

 

“I’ll take that as a no,” Glory growled as she grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up, “I’m going to pick your feathers off one at a time.”

 

She threw me over her shoulder, crashing me through one of the stone decorative pillars in the room. I groggily got up on me knees, but Glory was there waiting and delivered a vicious punch to the side of my head then another and another before kicking me in the chest, sending me rolling back in to the wall.

 

“Last chance chicky,” Glory taunted as she strutted towards me, “Tell me where my Key is and maybe I’ll let your bitch live to show you what a merciful deity I am.”

 

“Call her a bitch one more time your worthlessness and I’ll shove…” I started to threaten but was silenced when she thrust her bare foot on to my throat.

 

She squeezed down, crushing my larynx but not depriving me of oxygen; so that wasn’t the cause of the humming I was hearing.      Glory removed her foot from my throat and turned around to face off against Tara.

 

“Who the hell invited you?”

 

“I did,” Willow answered from in between them, placing a hand behind each of their heads.

 

White electricity like energy ran from the hand behind Glory through Willow to Tara before they were flung back by some unseen shockwave.

 

 “What the…what the hell did that…that witch do to me?” Glory got out in a shaky tone as she staggered back up to her feet.

 

“She just returned something you stole,” I replied standing up, causing Glory to face me.

 

“My…my head…she…messed with,” Glory stuttered causing me to chuckle, “Witch may have messed with my head but I still got enough power to deal with you. You got nothing but pain in your future.”

 

“Pain is my power,” I told her coldly as I reached out and cupped her head in my hands. Glory cried out as I used my power to transfer all the pain and suffering she visited upon the people’s minds she drained in to her.

 

That little detour I mentioned was to the wing of the hospital housing all her victims where I picked their brains and offered them some semblance of peace in return.

 

“Every life you ruined, all their pain…all at once…all for you,” I groaned, squeezing my hands tight around her head before tossing her back.

 

Glory fell to her knees as she began turning in to a human…man? A young man with wavy short brown hair. The change only lasted for a minute before she returned back to herself.

 

“It’s…going…going to…to take a lot…a lot more then that to get me…get me to give this body back to Benny boy,” Glory got out harshly as she grinned up at me, only for it to vanish as she looked into the face of the Crow.

 

“I was kinda hoping you’d say that,” I replied with a shit eating grin as I delivered a spinning kick to the side of her face that sent her crashing in to the wall beside her.

 

I leapt over to her and dragged her up by her hair. “Get up,” I growled as I delivered a series of fast back hands and hard slaps to her face.

 

A dazed look filled her eyes as she staggered on her feet, placing a hand on my shoulder to steady herself. I took hold of the wrist and twisted it back to the breaking point before kicking her in the stomach, doubling her over then tossing her through the glass door behind her. I followed after her, sparing a glance to see Willow stroking Tara’s face, crying as Tara looked up and smiled at her in recognition.

 

The spell worked. It transferred the stolen energy from Glory back to Tara, with a booming side effect. It also gave me the opening to give Glory a taste of her own medicine, causing her to become weakened and loose her focus and control.

 

Well her focus at least. Her control over this Ben seemed to be stronger then ever. Most of my plan seemed to be working. Beating the crap out of her right now is more the Crow then me, but I will admit…I am enjoying it.

 

I tossed Glory back through the other half of the door, cutting her up from the glass and sending her skidding on her back. Sis flew in and went to the railing on the second floor, looking down on the scene.

 

“What…what are you?”

 

I leapt and landed on top of her, grinning wickedly down at her. “Hell. The black void. Funny you should ask cause I booked you a spot there.”

 

“You…can’t do this…I’m a God,” Glory declared strongly. I slapped her hard across the cheek.

 

“God is in heaven with all his saints and angels. Their arms opened wide in invitation, but not for the likes of you.”

 

“Carmen,” Buffy shouted. I turned my head and the evil grin that had been on my face since landing on Glory vanished as I locked eyes with her. “This isn’t part of the plan, is it?”

 

I closed my eyes and turned back to Glory, reigning in the Crow as best I can since even I wanted to continue the beat down. Opening my eyes, I saw Glory smiling smugly up at me.

 

“Whipped by your bitch,” Glory laughed, “So like a human.”

 

“I thought I told you to stop calling her that,” I growled grabbing her head again, “If you’re so interested in knowing what it’s like to be human…I’ll show you.”

 

Calling on all the painful memories of my past and all those of the people I’ve touched and seen since becoming a Crow, Faith’s childhood, my feelings from dealing with my parents and classmates, and everything else I had inside me. I focused on them all then pushed them in to Glory’s mind. Glory cried out as she felt and relived every memory in a whirlwind movie of flashes and emotions she was obviously unaccustomed to dealing with before I let go of her and staggered back. She instantly curled in to a ball and began sobbing uncontrollably.

 

***

 

I turned and walked to Buffy, the Crow having receded back inside me as I fell to my knees in front of her, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting the side of my head against her stomach.

 

“What did you do?” Willow asked looking over at the sobbing heap of Goddess as she began mumbling incoherently.

 

“Showed her what it’s like being human.”

 

Glory turned on her back and turned back in to that guy, Ben, whose body she inhabits. He turned on to his side and kept repeating, “I’m sorry,” over and over.

 

“Is this the cost Giles mentioned?” Buffy asked curiously as she knelt down and wrapped her arms around me.

 

“Yes,” Giles answered as he came in and went to Ben, placing a hand on his head, “She’s still inside him, buried underneath the trauma you instilled in him. They both will be forced to relive it over again until it passes.”

 

“I know,” I sighed regretfully, “But at least it will buy time for you to find a way to bind Glory inside him and send him to the Council for safe keeping.”

 

“I don’t think there’s enough therapy in the world to help him,” Tara said as she slowly stood up, “The hell I was in…no one can escape without help.”

 

“Even so, the Council has a coven and many other resources that should be able to deal with Glory now that she’s…” Giles began.

 

“An emotional wreck,” I finished with a laugh. Giles simply nodded as he pulled out a cell phone and began dialing.

 

“Babe,” I breathed in a tired tone, “I know I promised to let you do whatever you want with me…but can we put that on hold till after I take a nap.”

 

“You don’t sleep,” Buffy reminded me.

 

“Pass out then.”

 

“Okay,” Buffy breathed as she placed a kiss to my lips, “Thank you.”

 

“That’s my line,” Tara breathed warmly kneeling down beside me.

 

“Everyone’s welcome. Now can we please go home while I’m still able to stay conscious?”

 

Buffy, Tara and Willow helped me up and walked me out of Glory’s place. I’ll worry about my bike later or let Faith get it and bring it back to my loft. Buffy and I have a lot of talking to do about our future, but right now I can’t think about that in my current state. Glory is buried deep inside Ben and going to be spending the rest of their lives in a mystically sealed padded room in some English dungeon. A sad end to an undeserving guy, but it’s something I had to do in order to ensure the safety of my family.

 

Okay, that’s all the voiceover I have left in me for this adventure.

 

           


End file.
